Up and Down Wall Street

A Whiff of Reality

Dow 36,000? Maybe if the government has its way. Why we ought to be wary of the good fortunes of a lucky few.

ONLY 26,000 POINTS TO GO. That's all it would take for the high-stepping Dow, which last week legged it past the 10,000 mark, to fulfill the prophecy of a pair of astigmatic seers during an earlier orgy of optimism, the dot-com boom. At the dizzying rate the venerable index has been escalating, it should hit 36,000 even before Mr. Obama, taking a leaf from Mike Bloomberg's book, runs for a third term.

The Dow last enjoyed so elevated a perch slightly over a year ago, when, alas, it fell victim to a virulent bout of...